1/14/2011

Nash Flash rehash part three(?)

All I can say is, "Hello, welcome back! It has been quite some time."

I admit that content has been sparse ever since I dropped my freelance projects one by one until it reached almost nil and I concentrated full time with financial services and now back office operations. But what is important is that this is up and running. Again.

For those who are keeping count (if there are any), the design has been in perpetual beta but the content has evolved into what will essentially be v4.0. What started as a depository of random thoughts and preferred websites directory, turned into a short-lived academic requirement, which transferred into a virtual archive of my online freelance work, will finally have an identity uniquely of its own. And hopefully for good.

I have been telling myself that if I will produce a regular chronicle about a general topic it would be a restroom review or Dirty Jobs with Mike Rowe, preferably sans the 'dirty', type of project in written form. Time to execute Plan A.

Why a restroom review, you might ask? I will tell you its back story.

The inspiration came from when I saw the plug of Zach Lucero's travelogue in UnTV when he entered the second floor men's comfort room of Strata 2000. That short clip gave me the light bulb idea of trying to pull the same in Insomniac with Dave Attell fashion. Then there is the I Wish I Can Do That section of older FHM Philippines publications and the legendary adventures of El Gimikero. Yes, I read that mag and not just ogle at the pictures.

However, this so-called project got shelved and put on hold some more for a variety of reasons, foremost is procrastination. The next time this was brought up was last year when Ronald "The Burn" Melendres, the guy who appeared in the Globe My SuperPlan TV ads, was thinking of putting up a blog of his own.

Somehow, talked turned into what I can write about. Sports blogs come into mind but they already are a dime a dozen. I mean there are Deadspin, Basketbawful, Free Darko, Fire Quinito , The 15th Parallel, and the Secret Society of Mico Halili Fans. I have not mentioned yet UBelt, Inbound Pass, Varsity Hoops, Full Court Fresh, and Bleacher’s Brew. Besides, I do not get to watch enough sports nowadays to formulate regular content and I have a standing rule of boycotting American professional leagues and the PBA. But I digress.

Going back, I pitched the idea of writing an RR review with the simple selling point that it has never been done before. I was this ( ) close of doing it but I found the thought of having paper and pen in the loo, jotting down notes, while everybody else is doing his thing. It just looks awk-weird.

The idea sprung up twice recently in passing conversations, the last one my friend telling me that the some writers do include the CR in their food review. So my eureka moment was not that as out of the box as I thought it would be.

But... but... I found a loophole. They mention the john in their food review but NO ONE has a done a where the toilet is the main agendum. Besides, I make a bad food writer since I have a high tolerance for anything palatable, I eat anything and I would end up giving high marks. At least with restrooms, I have a set criteria what is a good, what is not, and what is exceptionally maintained.

So why a restroom review? I noticed I have not answered the question directly yet.

The reason is simple. A restroom tells more about the establishment than the one you see upon entering the entrance. Everything else is a facade. But of course, that is their line of business.

Still, it remains that the fact that they have a well-kept comfort room means the business is taking that extra step to maintain and keep clean what cannot be initially seen. In summary, all I can say is one line...

"Let the toilet tell the tale."

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And one line was all that I needed to kick start this long-delayed project. That single sentence concreted with what I felt upon entering the restroom of Little Tokyo in Makati.

From there, the faucet of ideas got tapped as it gushed forth and flowed with ample pressure, emanating the gurgle of flushing words, clearing away the shite for the next occupant or in this case, the next restroom to review.